Sunday, September 13. 2009

Another exciting weekend in the Trolley Bus Department.On Friday, Jerry Saunders moved an entire row of motor coaches out of the Hoffman Garage to facilitate the unloading and garaging of the SF Fageol-Twin 614.I arrived in the afternoon to help move some parts from the back of the garage.On Saturday, Jerry and I chased our new coach through the bustling streets of downtown Union, IL, taking videos.

SF Fageol-Twin 614 arrives at IRM on 09/12/2009.

Upon arrival, we found that unloading it was very simple.After all these years, the handbrake still worked great, so we tipped the trailer back, and with Jerry at the wheel, we let gravity do all the work.We then towed it into the Hoffman garage with the department Dodge Ram locomotive.After lunch we pushed it back out on Central Avenue and went to work on the initial cleaning and inspection.We found the coach to be in a bit rougher shape than our last OERM coach, the Seattle Twin 633 – which took us 5 hours to get running, so we expected the Fageol to take us more time.We turned out to be correct as it took 5 and a half hours to get the Fageol to run itself back into the Hoffman Garage under its own power.

The 614 awaits unloading in front of the Hoffman Garage while the CA&E cars go into service - 09/12/2009.

To be fair, we had much more help Saturday.A big thank you to the usual suspects, Richard Schauer and Jerry Saunders as well as Warren Lloyd, Charlie Strong, Al Reinschmidt, and Nick Kallas (yes, you read that correctly).This crew gave us a big hand in the unloading and initial cleaning of the coach.As always, our trucker Mel came through with his usual professional job and transported the coach across the country without incident.

After unloading, the 614 sits in the loop in front of the Andersen Garage - 09/12/2009.

Naturally there are some issues with the 614.Unfortunately the seats did not fare as well as the 633 – most are split, sun baked and/or downright torn up.Although the windows were covered, this coach lived out in the desert longer than the 633, and I suspect whoever came up with the great idea of covering the windows didn’t think of it until several years after the 614 arrived at OERM.As we experienced with the 633, there are some wiring issues which have to be tracked down.And dirty!!!!It took a month of weekends to get the 633 looking as nice as it does today; I suspect it will take at least twice as long with the 614.

Jerry Saunders and Al Reinschmidt start the LONG process of cleaning out over 30 years of desert dust - 09/12/2009.

On Sunday, Jerry and I did some paint touch-ups on the NY Cars and worked on the insulation for the power cables on the roof of one of the cars.We are planning on washing the interior of the cars on Friday for their first day of revenue service on Member’s Day this Saturday.We are also planning on some nighttime runs after dinner.

Thank you IRM for preserving another Fageol Twin Coach bus ! I love these buses and own 2 here in New York State ... a 34-S and a 45-S to me they are one of the most streamlined-ahead of their time vehicles ! Keep up your good work . GOD bless you & IRM. Sincerely Jerry Fretto , Rochester,NY

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Brian L. about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverTue, 03-17-2015 21:34Display first, operation later. It
needs to be watertight to be on
display with the streamliners in
yard 5, then we can start working
on putting the [...]

Roger Kramer about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverTue, 03-17-2015 19:04Hello David S We would love to
have the Silver Pony in operation.
At this time the coach dept does
not have enough volunteers and $ to
complete [...]

David S about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverTue, 03-17-2015 15:39On display? No plans for it to ever
become operational? I know it
wouldn't exactly "fit in" with the
heavyweights, but I bet it would be
very popular [...]

Brian L. about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverSun, 03-15-2015 13:18We have 3 "modernized"
Heavyweights, IC 2804, GTW 5316,
and UP 501. UP 501 is used for the
Terror on the Railroad event, GTW
5316 needs some major [...]

Chris about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverFri, 03-13-2015 02:06It looks like IRM DOES have about
three streamliner era coaches.
Though two are modernized
heavyweights, and one is more of a
luxury chair car. [...]

Brian L. about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverThu, 03-12-2015 11:20Ted,
The car started life as a near copy
of CB&Q 1923; our operational RPO
Baggage car. I have not managed to
find the number of the car it was
[...]

Brian L. about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverThu, 03-12-2015 11:11Not a whole lot. Operational cars
take priority obviously. Hopefully
we'll have the materials we need to
get it on display within a year or
two.

Brian L. about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverThu, 03-12-2015 11:04If we were to go after any
lightweight coaches, they would
either be junk or cost tens or
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Postwar lightweights [...]

Roger Kramer about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverThu, 03-12-2015 10:57Hello Ted, Our info from CB&Q
Hist Society confirms that the
"bag" was once an RPO and was
converted to a baggage car.
Please help the cause by [...]

Roger Kramer about The Old Bag and the Silver BeaverThu, 03-12-2015 10:50Hi Dave, Regarding the Silver Pony
there are plans for future
installation of some windows but
nothing scheduled for the next six
months. We will be [...]